27 April 2015

Pilots to empower women and enhance prosperity

Under-investment in women, who represent 40% of the world’s labour force but hold just 1% of its wealth, is now widely recognized as an opportunity cost for economic growth and business performance.
Women in the Pacific are an enormous potential economic resource who have the capacity to greatly enhance prosperity. Gender equality is recognised as one of the drivers of change in ADB’s Strategy 2020. Since PSDI’s inception in 2007, gender mainstreaming has been applied to all its initiatives. In 2013, PSDI began an Economic Empowerment of Women (EEOW) program, where it is actively working to identify spaces to initiate pilot programs that encourage women’s engagement with the private sector.